Ignore the rhetoric.
Mail-In Voting is secure, convenient, and accurate.
What do pundits and critics of this voting method have to say?
A 2017 study by the Brennan Center for Justice concluded that mail-in ballot systems present no meaningful risks, with fraud found only 0.00004% to 0.0009% of the time, “based on studies of past elections.” Even the more skeptical Heritage Foundation, which tracks election results in a database that covers 30 years reported “only one case [of fraud using mail-in ballots] per state every six or seven years,” or “about 0.00006 percent of total votes cast.”
How do Washington State election officials keep our vote-by-mail system fair and transparent? There are multiple layers of security for mail-in ballots. First, ballots are mailed only to voters who have registered with an approved identification and a signed a sworn affidavit that the registrant is a U.S. citizen. Voter registration records are continually updated to remove deceased voters or those who have moved. In addition to mailing in their completed ballots, many voters choose the secure drop boxes in convenient locations thoughout the county. Each mail-in ballot envelope has a unique number assigned allowing voters to submit only one. When the ballots are received by the election office in each county, they are “logged” and the signature “checked against registration records” by highly trained election workers. To confirm the status of your ballot, you can check VoteWA, the statewide voter registration database. Voters can also sign up for text alerts, notifying them when their ballot has been mailed, received, and accepted.
Because our vote-by-mail system uses paper ballots, it allows staff to review and manually count ballots when necessary. The majority of all ballots are counted by computer equipment that is not connected to the internet, one of precautions that Elections staff take to prevent cyber and physical interference. In addition, the Snohomish County Election Office conducts audits before every election and verifies the results with two post-election audits that compare manually counted ballots to the tabulated results ensuring accuracy of the results.
Due to the security measures in place when submitting and counting ballots, you can rest assured that mail-in voting is fair and accurate. See for yourself. If you’re a Snohomish County voter, you can even sign up to observe this transparent process in action at the County Auditor’s Office in Everett.
For more questions about almost any aspect of the election process, visit the County Auditor’s FAQ page.